The Shadow Hunter
by headmaster lion who can talk
Summary: It had been weeks since the clouds appeared in the sky, and no one knew when they would leave. Reports have been coming in for a decade about people feeling a presence around them. Fiore has all it's wizarding guilds on watch for the Mysterious Shadow Hunter, but one guild will be found before their search even begins. *On indefinite hiatus*
1. Chapter 1

The young wizards had been walking for hours. The sun had yet to make an appearance, and instead, the sky was veiled with thick grey clouds. It had been weeks since the cloud appeared in the sky, and no one knew when they would leave. The air felt grey and eerily still.

"'Remind me why we had to walk the whole way!' She said irritably," Horlogio said, holding Lucy inside of him.

"Oh come on, you're not even walking!" Natsu retorted, punctuated by a weary "Aye" from Happy.

"'Because we've been walking for hours! Why couldn't we just take the train?' She whined."

"Do you want to be on a train with Natsu tossing his lunch everywhere?" Gray asked.

"Hey, it's not my fault I get motion sick, I can't help it!"

"Did I say it was your fault, flamebrain?"

"That's enough," Erza said, silencing them both. "It's better for us to walk anyway. We aren't certain the one we're looking for is in this town, only that they're in this area. By walking, we gain the possibility of finding them on the outskirts."

"Hey Erza, how come you keep saying "them" are we looking for a team?" Happy asked.

"Yeah, I thought there was just one person," Wendy said.

"There is only one, but almost nothing is known about them, including if it's a male, female, or even a human at all."

"'Well can't we at least take a break?' She asked," Horlogio said.

"Yeah, I'm starving!" Said Natsu.

"The town is just up ahead. We'll eat once we get there," Erza said, met with a few cheers for being almost there and a few groans for not being there yet.

The team trudged on toward the small town ahead of them.

They were completely unaware that they were being watched.

When they finally reached the town, Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Grey, Wendy, Happy, and Carla checked into a room at a cozy little inn. They had just begun to rest their weary feet from their long journey when the wind began to whine through the unbolted window pane. Erza crossed the room to close it when something in the shadows caught the corner of her eye. She turned quickly to look but found nothing there.

"Everything all right, Erza?" Lucy asked.

"Yes, I'm fine. I just thought I saw...nevermind. There's nothing there."

"So who are we looking for again?" Natsu asked between bites of food.

"The master said they're called 'The Shadow Hunter,'," Gray said.

"Jeez, what a ridiculous name," Natsu said, "How do you hunt a shadow? It's not even there, it's just blocked light."

"Aye!" Happy chimed in beside him.

"No, you idiot, whoever this is doesn't hunt shadows, they hunt _from_ the shadows. Or at least that's what they say."

"What are they hunting?" Wendy asked with an edge of fear in her voice.

"No one really knows."

"No one's ever seen them," Erza said, "Or what they've done. Reports cave been coming in for a decade about people feeling a presence around them, hearing whispers, feeling like they'd been hit by something out of nowhere. No one really knows what the Shadow Hunter does, but many people have caught glimpses of glowing eyes or faces in the trees or walls."

"So what does that have to do with us?" Lucy asked.

"Yes, this all sounds like empty ghost stories," Carla said.

"They might seem like ghost stories, but they're a lot more serious," said Gray.

"Yes," Said Erza, "Recently, whenever people see or feel these things people around them die. For the past year, the Shadow Hunter has been leaving a trail of bodies and fear behind them."

"Not to mention these clouds."

"What? This jerk controls the weather too?" Natsu yelled, jumping up from his seat.

"Pipe down, Natsu, Let us finish," Gray said. "Any reported Shadow Hunter sightings have been accompanied by reports of a strange feeling all throughout the town. Almost like the air around them stopped moving except a few violent bursts of wind that seemed to come out of nowhere. Everything felt heavy, and dark for a while. Usually, it goes away, but for some reason, towns all over Fiore have been reporting weeks of clouds and this weird stillness in the air."

"Is that why a watch notice was put out all of a sudden?" Lucy asked. Just that morning Fairy Tail received a message from the Magic Council that all guilds were to be on the watch for the Shadow Hunter, and it was asked that they send wizards out to investigate.

"Exactly," Gray answered.

"So what do we do?" Wendy asked.

"We find them," Erza said, "We find the Shadow Hunter, and we find out what they've been doing. Whoever it is might not actually be involved with these clouds, but they certainly seem to be involved in the string of deaths, so they'll have to answer to that."

"What if another guild finds them first?"

"Then that guild will deal with the Shadow Hunter."

Just then the wind howled, throwing the window open violently. Lucy rushed to shut it, but something caught her eye in a blackened corner of the alley. She couldn't tell what it was, but there was definitely something there. She suddenly felt uneasy, as if she was staring right at someone she couldn't see. She felt a weight drop into her stomach and she rushed to shut the window, pulling the curtains tightly across it. She turned back into the room before slumping against the wall, her face flushed.

"You all right, Luce?" Natsu asked her. Concern was deeply etched into every face staring back at her.

"They're here," She said meekly, "The Shadow Hunter."


	2. Chapter 2

**I hope you're having a good week.**

"Are you certain you saw them?" Erza asked, kneeling next to Lucy with a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Yes, I'm positive," Lucy said.

"What exactly did you see?" Gray asked.

"Well, I didn't exactly see anything. It was a dark corner, really shadowy, but I could still sort of make out what was there. I didn't see anyone, just an old box or two, but I know there was someone there. I know they were watching me. I could feel it."

"Psh, sounds like you're just going crazy if you ask me," Natsu piped up from the other side of the room.

"I am not going crazy you jerk, that was terrifying!"

"Oh, come on, Luce. Ominous, weather, creepy stories, sudden noises, and a dark corner? It sounds to me like the story might have gotten to your head and freaked you out."

"Well...now that you think about it, I guess that could've been it..." Lucy pondered the idea as she began to calm down. "Yeah, I guess you're probably right. Still, I can't quite shake that feeling."

"We should all try to get some rest," Erza said, "We're going to have some long days ahead of us, it's we'll need our strength."

Erza, Natsu, Wendy, Carla, and Happy meandered over to their beds while Gray helped Lucy up. She was visibly shaken by the incident at the window.

"Hey," Gray said, "You gonna be all right?"

Luce looked up at her friend. A small smile that was only partially forced crossed her face. "Yeah, I'll be okay. I think I just need some rest."

Satisfied, Gray crossed to his bed. Lucy slowly made her way to the last empty bed and crawled under the covers.

'I hope I'm not too shaken up to sleep,' She thought as she closed her eyes.

BANG

The team was awakened with a start. They sat up board straight in bed, looking frantically around the room for the source of what had awoken them. Every window they had was slammed open and wind was howling into the room. Natsu, Gray, and Erza tried to get up and fight their way over to the windows to force them shut but they could barely move.

"This is one hell of a storm!" Natsu yelled over the screaming winds.

"This isn't like any storm I've ever seen!" Gray yelled back. "Look outside, the trees are barely moving!"

It was true. Outside the team's room at the inn, the wind was steady and definitively strong, but nowhere near as forceful or earsplitting as the wind they were currently fighting against.

"Someone's attacking us?" Natsu shouted.

"Not just anyone" Erza yelled back, "Look!"

Standing in the center window was a cloaked frame. The features were mostly obscured by the shadow and the frantic movement of the cloak in the wind. Something shined over where the eyes should be, there was a long, thin set of objects protruding over one shoulder, and what looked like hair was flying fiercely,but other than that nothing could be made out.

The figure launched itself up from the window sill, disappearing behind the wall. The winds seemed to follow, though the howling could still be heard. It sounded like wailing cries of pain. Gray and Natsu sprung forward, clambering out windows and climbing the short distance to the roof. When they got up to the top of the building, there was the Shadow Hunter waiting for them to arrive. The two boys took off, but the Shadow Hunter turned and ran.

"You've got nowhere to go, you might as well stand and fight!" Natsu yelled over the wind.

But the Shadow Hunter didn't stop. They continue to run towards the end of the roof.

"What're they gonna do, jump?" Gray cried.

The inn was not a large one, but it was still very tall and the roof inclined in the direction they were all running. A jump from that height could be detrimental.

The Shadow Hunter approached the edge of the roof with increasing speed that did not waiver when they ran right off the roof. They were quickly carried to a perch at the corner of the next building over. They sat watching the boys carefully.

"No way," Natsu said the wail of the winds seeming to follow the Shadow Hunter away. "They can fly?"

"Evidently," Gray said.

"What're we gonna do?"

"We follow them!" Erza called up from where she stood on the ground with Lucy, Wendy, and the two exceeds. Happy and Carla flew up to take Natsu and Gray around the waist safely to the ground.

"Let's move!" Erza yelled as the Shadow Hunter finally took off through the air.

The team followed the mysterious figure through the empty streets of town, unsure of where they were going.

"Something's wrong," Gray said after a while.

"You're right," Lucy said, "They keep starting and stopping. It's almost as if they're waiting for us to keep up."

"Do you think they're leading us into a trap?" Wendy asked.

"They do seem to be a bit too cooperative," Carla mused.

"I don't care if it's a trap," Natsu called out, "I'm gonna catch that shadow-punk and make them sorry they ever woke us up. No one messes with my sleep!"

"Aye, sir!" Happy chimed,flying beside his friend.

"I don't know guys, I have an uneasy feeling about this," Lucy said as the crossed to the far outskirts of town and came to a particularly dark street. The buildings were falling to shambles and the street lights were all smashed at the tip or toppled over at the middles. There was an eerie feeling hanging in the cold air. The young mages had lost sight of the Shadow Hunter in the darkness.

"Now I'm feeling really uneasy," Lucy said as her eyes swept across the abandoned street.

"Do you feel that?" Gray asked.

"Everything feels so still and cold," Wendy said, nervously clutching onto Carla who looked very concerned. "It's so quiet!"

"All right, where's the shadow-punk?" Natsu called out, his voice booming through the quiet street.

"Natsu," Lucy said, "Calm down-"

She was immediately silenced as an explosion echoed through the night. The team whipped their heads around to see a large fire destroying what had once been the town's inn.

"What?" Erza exclaimed.

"Oh no, was anyone hurt?" Wendy cried.

"I don't know how many people were in that inn, but I don't remember it being empty," Carla said. "I don't think anyone could've survived a blast like that."

Natsu's fists clenched at his sides as he felt his blood boiling. "You happy now, punk? Were you trying to kill us? Well, you didn't! All you did was kill an inn full of innocent people, and that's something the Fairy Tail guild doesn't forgive, so show your face!" He yelled, turning every which way.

Suddenly the now familiar sound of howling winds picked up all around them, rushing towards the largest house on the street. It felt like there were people ramming into the young mages from all sides.

"Let's go, they're in there!" Natsu yelled, taking off towards the house.

"Natsu, wait!" Lucy called after him as the rest of the team rushed after him.

The cloaked figure sat perched in the tree above them watching the team run right into the house. They followed closely behind, gliding silently through the air.

Inside the house, the wind was raging all around the mages. They stood pushed close together in the center of the main room as the wailing winds swirled and spiraled, closing them in. When the teenagers couldn't get any closer together the doors and windows all slammed into place and the wind stopped short. Every sound and every speck of movement suddenly vanished with a start as if it never happened.

"What's going on?" Lucy asked quietly, her near silent voice ringing through the stillness.

From the rafters fell the cloaked figure, and before them stood the Shadow Hunter.


	3. Chapter 3

"Light the Torches."

The voice boomed through the crushing silence. It seemed to come from everywhere. The young mages looked around, confused and afraid. Natsu spotted a series of small torches lining the room. He quickly lit them all. For the first time, he and the other Fairy Tail mages got a good look at the Shadow Hunter.

The figure seemed to loom in the shadows even while bathed in the light. They seemed to be swallowed by the dark cloak around their shoulders and the large hood over their head. Thick boots and lean legs could be seen where it opened. They wore a pair of thick aviation goggles and a dark scarf over their face.

The moment seemed to stretch on forever as team Natsu wondered what fate might await them. Natsu places his hands protectively around Wendy's shoulders as she buried herself in his chest. He wished for her sake that he could've hidden his own shivers of fear. Lucy clutched Happy and Carla close to her chest a Gray stood with his hands at the ready and goosebumps on his skin. It had been years since he had gotten goosebumps. Even Erza would admit that she was very afraid. Nothing about the figure standing before them was more or less intimidating than anyone they'd faced before, necessarily, in fact, the Shadow Hunter wasn't very big. But the feeling, the stillness that set into your very bones was enough to make anyone's skin crawl with fear. The air around them was so incredibly still that the flames didn't even flicker. Just as the silence was becoming unbearable, the Shadow Hunter made a move.

They extended a calm hand to remove the hood to reveal faded teal hair cut short on one side and gathered at the neck. They slid their goggles up their face to rest in their hair as they gazed intently at the Fairy Tail mages with deep red-brown eyes. As they threw open the cape with a long flourish, it became very apparent that the intimidating figure before them belonged to a young woman. She wore a black romper with dark gray tights and a brown belt. She looked almost like someone you might find in Fairy Tail or another guild. She looked almost...normal. But something was still very off about her.

"My name is Navianna," She said, her voice seeming to echo through the old, tattered house. "I am the one they call the Shadow Hunter. And I have one question for you."

The team of mages stood in absolute fear of the woman before them, their fear only enhanced as they wondered what her question might be.

Suddenly, her whole demeanor changed. Her once solid, intimidating stance became light and casual as she leaned her weight to one foot and crossed one arm across her chest, the other arm reaching up to pull the scarf down to their neck. Her cold eyes softened, and her voice didn't ring with quite as much intimidation as before.

"Was he naked when you guys came in?" She asked, gesturing to Gray, "Because I was watching you the whole way over here and I'm pretty sure he had at least pants on, shorts even, but now he's just in his underwear. Which leads me to a follow-up question of why did he take his clothes off? Is this something that happens a lot? Because none of you seem all that surprised or anything. This all then wind itself back up in my final question of does he plan on putting his clothes back on?"

Seven sets of eye grew wide with confusion as seven mouths gaped wide open.

"Why does everything always come back to this?" Lucy groaned.

Gray stormed over to the woman in front of them. "Hey, you got a problem wit me not wearing clothes?" He demanded.

"Actually, yes I do," She responded, "It makes me uncomfortable."

"Oh, this makes you uncomfortable? Oh, that's too bad, I would hate to make the person trying to kill us feel a little uncomfortable!"

She paused for a moment, the coldness returning to her eyes. She stared very intently at Gray as her stance regained its prior tension. She stepped toward Gray as he backed away from her until his back hit the wall. The Shadow Hunter got unbelievably close to him, it seemed impossible that she wasn't standing in him.

"I wasn't trying to kill you," She said slowly, her voice calm and powerful. "I was saving you."

"What? There's no way!" Natsu exclaimed, shocked.

Navianna felt absolutely insulted. Indignantly, she lowered her goggles back onto her face, pulled her hood up over her head and flew back up into the rafters, disappearing into the shadows.

"No, wait!" Wendy called, pulling away from Natsu, "Please don't go!"

"Quiet child," Carla scolded, "You don't know what she can do!"

"What do you mean you were saving us?" Gray asked.

A flash of teal and pale skin appeared above them as Navianna turned back to them. After a moment she jumped back down, landing silently on the ground and pulling the goggles and hood off. "I mean I didn't set the inn to go up."

"Then who did?" Natsu asked, still seething.

"Ain't that the big question," She said, smirking.

"What do you mean by that?" Erza asked

"I mean I'm not the one leaving the dead bodies every place I go I'm not the one hurting innocent people, and I'm not the one who destroyed that inn."

"But you said you were the Shadow Hunter," Erza said.

"Yeah, but I'm not a criminal."

"Every guild in Fiore has been sent out looking for ya because of all the bad stuff you've been doing," Natsu yelled. "People have been getting hurt. Innocent people. Do you want to explain that?"

"Do you want to explain why I got everyone out of that inn tonight before it went up? Why I lead you here to talk? Why I stepped out of the shadows for the first time since I can remember? If I was guilty, if I was so evil as to do things like that, then why would I turn myself over like this?"

The room was silent for a very long moment. Natsu looked towards the ground scowling as the rest of his team turned over what the young woman said.

"So who should everyone be looking for instead?" Gray asked.

"I don't know. That's why I made the decision to get help. I've heard of your guild and I figured you'd understand. Guess I was wrong." She pulled her hood up again, preparing to leave.

"You weren't wrong," Natsu said, looking up with a determined set in his eyes. "If you're willing to come out of the shadows and put your trust in us, then the least we can do is try and return the favor."

Navianna pulled the hood back off her head and smiled.

"Just one more question," Gray said, rejoining the group. "What's going on with the weather?"

Navianna's face darkened.

"I don't know.


	4. Chapter 4

The mages sat in a circle on the floor of the old abandoned house. The torches around the room were still shining bright and the air remained still enough to keep the flames absolutely motionless. The Fairy Tail mages were listening intently to Navianna's story.

"I've been on my own for as long as I can remember. Well, not exactly on my own. I've never had a family or anything like that, but I've never been alone either. No one's ever really alone. The world is full of spirits. They're everywhere. I can see them all."

"Wait, like dead people?" Natsu asked.

"Yes. I'm a spirit mage of sorts. I suppose the only real magic I do is seeing and communicating with the spirits, the rest is all their power."

"You talk to them?" Natsu asked, beginning to raise his voice.

"Yes, telepathically. I tell them what I need and they help me."

"What can you do with them?" Gray asked.

"Well all sorts of things," She stood up and walked to a clear area of the room. "They can surround me, turn me invisible," She said as she slowly faded away until she could no longer be seen. Team Natsu all stared in shock as Navianna slowly returned to sight. She walked to the wall. "They can make me intangible," She reached out her arm and passed right through the wall. Wendy gasped and covered her mouth.

"That's impossible!" Carla said.

"But how?" Erza asked.

"Like I said, it's the spirits. They surround me and pass some of their power and energy through me. They can pass through any solid object or person."

"They pass through people?" Lucy asked, looking slightly horrified.

"Haven't you ever felt a sudden chill run through your body?"

Suddenly, all five Fairy Tail mages and both of the exceeds shuttered at the sudden wave of cold that passed through them. The spirits.

"If you've ever felt the hair on your neck stand up then there were active spirits close behind you. Like I said, they're everywhere. Their presence feels stronger when I'm around because I call them into action. Usually, they just float around in a sort of stasis, but when I'm with them they become active," Navianna said.

"What else can you do?" Erza asked her.

Navianna looked back at the others as the corners of her mouth quirked up in a mischievous smile. She slowly lifted off of the floor. She hovered a few feet overhead for a moment before flying straight the middle of the group. They all scattered in shock and turned behind them to see Navianna clutching her stomach and laughing, still hovering above the floor.

"I always forget that humans can be so funny," She said through her laughter.

"So you really don't meet with other people that often?" Lucy asked.

"No," Navianna said, coming back to the ground. "Never. You're the first ones I've really talked to. I've always just listened in the shadows."

Suddenly Lucy realized something. "It was you I saw before! In the shadows, you were invisible, weren't you!"

Navianna nodded. "I was waiting to meet with you. I was going to do it in the morning, but things got...complicated."

"How did you know we'd even be here?" Gray asked.

Navianna closed her eyes and placed the side of her hand to her forehead. The silence in the house quickly dissipated into white noise. The flames flickered slightly as the air began to move gently around the mages. They all listened closely to the soft voices around them.

"They told me," the voices breathed.

"Like I said," Navianna's voice split through the white noise as it settled into nothingness, "Spirits are everywhere. They're all my informants. It's how I know where to go if there's going to be trouble or if I need to find someone. They pass all my messages along. I'm the magic council's best informant and they don't even know who I am."

"So what, they just hear the air talking to them and they go with it?" Natsu asked.

"Haven't you ever had a hunch? A sudden instinct or realization? Sometimes that's real, but sometimes, well, sometimes it might just be a spirit whispering in your ear."

"So what's with the crazy getup?" Gray asked, gesturing to Navianna's cape and clothes.

"Say what you will, at least I'm wearing clothes," She shot back at him crossing her arms over her chest.

"Hey!"

"She's got a point," Natsu said.

"You stay out of this flame brain!"

"Miss Shadow Hunter," Happy said quietly as he walked up to Navianna, still afraid, "If it's all right to ask, we would like to know why you're wearing those things."

Navianny crouched down so she was closer to Happy and patted him between his ears.

"Well sure, what do you want to know about?"

"Why do you wear the cape?"

"Spirits are very cold, and they're usually surrounding me or hovering over me, so it's nice to have something warm. Plus the dark color helps me hide."

"What about those goggles? And the scarf?" Carla asked.

"Yeah, why were you wearing it over your face?" Natsu added.

"Well the goggles are magic, they enhance my ability to see spirits. And as for the scarf, well, I don't really want to catch bugs or anything while I'm flying."

"And that headband?" Erza asked.

Navianna paused. She looked to the ground and brought a hand up over the dark gray cloth covering her forehead. "I've had this forever," She said. "It's the only sort of connection I have with my past and whatever family I may once have had."

Lucy saw Natsu stiffen and curl his hands into fists. The dragon slayer looked serious as he walked over to the Shadow Hunter. Navianna looked up as Natsu approached.

"Well whatever's going on here, we're going to need your help," He said as he extended his hand to her.

Navianna smiled and shook Natsu's hand.


End file.
